Image Based Upgrades with Debian
An increasing amount of Televic systems are now centered around software functionality. One of the foundational elements crucial to the development of software-based systems is the incorporation of a dependable and consistently stable operating system. This is precisely why the Debian Operating System stands as an indispensable component for our Televic systems.
Marc Leeman, Software Engineer at Televic, authored a comprehensive article delving into this subject. Below can be found the abstract and the option to download the full article.
Enjoy reading!
Abstract
Debian is a flexible and powerful Linux based operating system. It has a large repository of readily available and well maintained software on the one hand and it has a wide range of supported architectures to run on the other hand. As a result, the operating system is used on many development systems and servers and is known for its long running support and stability.
One of the central components of this success is the software deployment and upgrade tool: apt-get and dpkg.
These tools use pre-compiled software (in deb packages) to upgrade the different systems in a modular way from multiple storage locations and network resources. This results in systems that are up to date with the latest released software and security fixes; but it can also lead to systems that diverge from one another since their final software configuration depends on the time the upgrade has been performed. For device software, this is not desirable and re-initalising the devices with an re-install to restore the baseline is not practical, time and resource intensive.
The article describes how Televic uses Debian and how this apparent contradiction is countered by using image based upgrades, while keeping the strengths of incremental and modular upgrades when needed.
Interested to read more?
